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I ran over several excuses I could use to ask about his whereabouts, and just before I reached the bar, Daire—who, I’d noted earlier in the lineup, was sporting a black eye—moved into my path.
The scowl on his face made the fading bruises seem darker than they were as he crossed his arms and looked at me as though he wanted to punch me in the face.
“No.” That one word was the last thing I expected to hear as I stopped opposite him.
I slipped my hands in my pockets and forced a smile as I looked around at the crowded hall, making sure no one was watching us. “Excuse me?”
“No, we’re not gonna tell you where he went.”
If I thought thenocaught me off guard, then those words were downright shocking.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Lies. Everything out of my mouth tonight felt like a fucking lie.
“Sure you don’t.”
I gritted my teeth, trying for patience as I did my best to acknowledge passersby with a polite smile or nod.
Nothing to see here. Nothing going on. Just me, about to stroke out, at the Winter Ball.
“I was just coming over?—”
“To find out where Preston went.”
“I…” Wait a second, how did Daire know that? I could’ve been checking on Serena. I could’ve been coming to get a drink. I could’ve been doing a whole host of presidential activities, but no, he’d zeroed in on the one thing I shouldn’t be doing.
I reached for my bow tie and tugged at it a little, feeling as though it was strangling me.
“Don’t bother lying. You look as shit as he did.”
Fantastic.This night was going from bad to worse.
It was clear that Daire knew exactly what the hell was going on between me and Preston, and while that thought triggered alarm bells, the more pressing issue right now was where Preston had gone.
“Where is he? Did he go home?”
Daire looked past my shoulder, and I knew exactly whom he was looking at without bothering to turn. “Why do you care?”
I’d just about had enough of this. I wasn’t about to stand here and argue with one of Preston’s friends because he was inthe mood to play protector. This was between me and Preston, something Daire was about to find out real quick.
I stepped forward. “If you don’t tell me where he went and then get out of my way, I’m going to give you a matching accessory for your face.”
The feral smirk that curled Daire’s lip looked slightly unhinged. “Said he needed some air.”
That was all I needed to hear. I took off toward the exit and hoped like hell he was still out there. The cold air was like a punch to the face as I burst out into the snow-covered alley.
“Preston!” I called out, rushing into the middle of the street. “Preston, are you out here?”
I couldn’t see him anywhere. The lights over the many side exits of the Elysium showed nothing but empty alcoves, the white powder on the sidewalk undisturbed.
Fuck.Had I missed him? Was he already gone?
“Archer?”
I spun to see Preston stepping out from the opposite end of the street. He had his hands stuffed in his pockets and his shoulders hunched forward in an attempt to ward off the chill, but the falling snow made that close to impossible.
Relief flooded my body as I jogged over to him. But as I got closer and caught a glimpse of the frown worrying his brow, that relief turned to unease, and I remembered the reason I was out here in the first place.
“Preston.” The cold air puffed out of my mouth as I came to a stop opposite him. “What are you doing standing out here? It’s snowing.”
